Darth Vader: Hero of Naboo

Chapter 35

Padme was fully prepared to discover they were too late to reach the tower before Gunray, though she was hoping otherwise.

But they were all caught off guard when upon reaching the elevator, they found Gunray's escort of droids using it to go up in groups.

The surprise didn't stop the droids from taking aim at them.

"Porepiss!" Brannder yelled, shoving one of the Naboo behind a pillar as he ducked for cover.

Others weren't so fortunate, three of their group falling as blaster fire hailed down at them.

"We're too far to run to the walkway," Panaka realized bitterly from behind a stone pedestal.

"Captain!" Padme explained, staring at his shoulder.

Panaka followed her gaze and he couldn't see it, but he could smell the ozone and burnt fabric of his uniform. Was he hit? Being hit by a blaster was hard to miss, but sometimes, it happened and people were numb to it for a few seconds.

"You lucky spawn-leech," Rellen said with a laugh from behind them, peering at the supposed wound. "Don't worry! It just grazed the clothes."

Panaka relaxed mildly as Padme let out a sigh of relief.

"Can't say the same for my rifle," Rellen mustered, inspecting the scorch mark on the side of the damaged weapon. "Yeah, this thing is scrap now. So, anybody have an idea?"

"What about your ion grenades?" Padme reminded.

Brannder peeked his head out before jerking back in to avoid a shot to the face, "Hard to throw it far enough without getting hit!"

It went unsaid that if the grenade was dropped here, many of them would be injured if not killed. Ion grenades were best against electronics, but there was still enough concussive force in them to be dangerous to organics.

"Hmm," Rellen said, giving a reconsidering look to the rifle before looking to Padme. "We still have permission to wreck the palace?"

Padme gave a pointed look in response.

"Just checking," Rellen said, "Brannder!"

Without hesitation, Brannder threw his rifle across the gap to Rellen. It fortunately dodged the incoming blaster fire.

"Queen, you're going to want to cover your breathing holes," Rellen warned as he fiddled with the rifle and loaded the launcher, before reclining back and aiming the rifle high.

"What are you doing?!" Panaka asked in alarm.

"Probably something stupid," Rellen answered casually while angling the rifle, carefully.

An explosive launched from the weapon's under-barrel, heading for one of the archways at the ceiling before bursting in a hissing pop.

"You missed!" Gavyn yelled from the side.

"No, he didn't," Brannder said as the droid fire appeared to lessen, despite being just as loud as before. Taking the chance, Brannder hurled an ion grenade as far down as he could before pulling back. With the detonation echoing in the halls, Brannder took out a pistol to take shots from a distance, the Naboo following his lead as the Droids thinned from the grenade.

"They're thinning!" Gavyn called, ducking down- and grimacing as he realized the security officer next to him was now lying dead from a blaster shot to the neck. "But so are we."

"Hey, did any of you see that elevator go up since they started firing at us?!" Brannder called out to everyone, right from behind his hiding spot.

Padme watched as negative responses were called out. "Gunray's already up there," she deduced.